(Untitled)

[lucetimods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The event has started!
When: From the beginning of the event until the end.
Where: EVERYWHERE
Summary: You're feeling a bit different today.
Rating: All over the place, yo.

Go to town, kiddies!

Comments

16th (hey that's today...)

[imatreenow]

[In the days immediately following the draft, Mithos had spent most of his time drifting in and out of sleep. Despite a mind clouded with grogginess, he had quickly realized where he was upon waking for the first time in the cell. There wasn't enough energy for much of anything aside from a warped sense of hatred, made distant and hazy by exhaustion. Like it wasn't quite real. At some point (any sense of time was lost entirely), he had drifted back into consciousness to see that one of his captors had supplied more food as well as clean clothes

[imatreenow]

[A stretch of silence. Change. To change. To recognize that everything he has done and continues to do is wrong. Suddenly, that argument doesn't hold together as strongly as it used to. He tilts his head back to stare at the ceiling without really seeing it. His voice is starkly quiet now.]

...I don't know how to change.

[wise_maiden]

It's not something that can happen right away... but you are a very determined person, Mithos.

[imatreenow]

[Her last remark surprises him and he resists the urge to snap his gaze back in her direction. Is that...a compliment? Words of encouragement aren't something you give to an enemy. Then maybe...there's more sense to her words than he thought. That realization is no less startling, but... It's strange, how suddenly everything is unraveling before him, how clearly he's beginning to see what he had refused to look at. The abruptness is dizzying and confusing.]

.....Isn't it too late for me?

[wise_maiden]

[There's something almost disconcerting about his questions--he almost seems to be listening to her. Then again, there was that experiment, and...

Well, the hope was there. The hope that something would sink through and eventually...]

It doesn't have to be.

[imatreenow]

[After pressing down the same path for so many hundreds of years, how are a few halting steps in the opposite direction going to make any difference? Taking his eyes off the ceiling, he looks straight ahead again. His gaze doesn't quite meet Raine.]

This is the only way I know how to live. What am I supposed to do? [He has asked her that question before, but now it holds none of the same spite or sarcasm. It sounds burned-out.]

[wise_maiden]

All you can do is... treat others how you would want to be treated, if they have any dealings with you at all. If you just want to avoid them, that's fine too. Change isn't something you can force within yourself... you have to truly want that as a goal. No one said it was easy.

[imatreenow]

[He quietly absorbs her words, wondering if that's something he can really do. Or if he truly wants to make an effort; he doesn't know yet. The whole idea is so new, like experiencing colors that have never been seen before. Too many doubts hold him back.]

You...really want to help me with this. [It started out as a question, but turns into a statement of incredulity, or maybe astonishment. He tries not to wince at the word "help".]

[wise_maiden]

If you need it, it's there. [She's not really being forceful about it. If he does ever choose this path, he must walk it of his own volition. It's only a small hope -- and one belonging more to her brother and student than to her, at that.]

[imatreenow]

[He doesn't know what he's supposed to say here. All the old conventions for interacting with her have been thrown out, and he's left with no foundation to go off of. She's still the person who helped to take him down and to pluck away his dreams...

Maybe this will only work if he separates the past from the present.]

...I won't forgive you for what you did, nor will I apologize for what I've done in the past. [Not yet; that's too many steps at once.] But I... [and he trails off, struggling to find the right words.]

[wise_maiden]

... As long as we accept that the past is the past, it doesn't have to prevent a new future.

[Are they... really having this conversation? She keeps it in mind, that the shifts... it has to be some of the reason. But it's a chance.]

[imatreenow]

[Meanwhile, he has no idea a shift is in play and affecting him. Yes, this conversation and everything behind it is...strange and new and unexpected, but there's nothing artificial about it. It seems so natural that he should be like this... He looks directly at Raine. A nod, somewhat hesitant.]

...All right.